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Recommended: Art role in religion

The role played by the Church was directly entwined with the history and development of Western civilization. Although the church has had an influence on many things during its long history, it had a major impact culturally and philosophically. Specifically, the church had a major influence on the arts and architecture, which resulted in a changed philosophical mindset. The church’s influence on western society led to a had a major influence on art, architecture, and philosophy within these branches led to a had a major influence on the building of Western civilization.
The artistic inheritance of the west is strongly identified with Catholic images that were brought upon heavily by the Church’s influence. The eighth and ninth centuries witnessed the growth of a destructive heresy called iconoclasm. Iconoclasm rejected the veneration of images of religious figures, and went as far as to reject the depiction of Christ and the saints in art at all. (115) This idea however, could not take hold, since it ran directly counter to the Catholic understanding of and appreciation for the created world. Woods provides this information to describe the influence and importance of the church in artwork, in which, as I strongly agree, sparked a period that created beautiful paintings, sculptures, stained glass, and illuminated manuscripts; which were major parts during the growth of Western civilization. Theologians referred to Catholic theological in defense of art that depicted Christ, the saints, and the religious scenes that have defined so much of Western artistic life, and broadly, Western Civilization. Woods is describing the influence of the Church, overcoming iconoclasm and having an enormous influence on the arts, which sparked the g...

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...t upon your interest in choosing the chapter. I chose this chapter because I knew, right from the title: “Art, Architecture, and the Church” that I would be interested. In other words, being an artist is one of my favorite hobbies, yet I do not know a significant amount about the history art. This chapter provided insight into the Church’s influence on the growth of art, and its significance to Western Civilization. From the beginning, I knew that choosing this chapter would be interesting, and I was right. This chapter provided an abundant amount of information, such as famous artists and the roles they played, and the influence that the Church had on art, and vice versa. I was captivated the entire chapter, page by page, and Woods, successfully, played a major part in directly explaining the influence that art and architecture had on Western civilization

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